Weekend Jottings

With the abandonment of Fontwell this afternoon there is only one all-weather flat card remaining on these shores at Lingfield.  Even so, there is some good jumping action in Ireland on Attherace from Leopardstown.  Unless someone comes up with a point-to-point to go to, it really does look like Sunday is going to be a day of rest in the Barnes household!  Champion jockey A P McCoy has travelled over to the Emerald Isle for three rides, the pick of which looks to be Snake Eyes in the £100,000 handicap hurdle.  The worst prize money on the card is for the bumper, but even that is worth £8,000 - the courses over here could do with taking note.

Looking through the respective jockeys and trainers championships, it would appear that they have pretty much already been decided for this season.  Paul Nicholls holds a healthy lead in the trainers, despite the fact he has trained fewer winners than David and as many as Nicky Henderson.  In order for anyone to catch him they are going to need a couple of big Cheltenham Festival winners and maybe even the Grand National to boot - in the interest of keeping the championship relevant I really do think it is time to go back to the old system of the number of winners trained.  There are plenty of trainers capable of sending out 100 winners a season these days and would certainly make it all a lot more competitive and as far as I can see, that can only be good for the sport.

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I see that QPR boss Harry Redknapp could be the next manager on his way out of the door.  He is a great character and a great manager although without the players he is something of a sitting duck.  Harry could easily manage the likes of Manchester City or Chelsea, although I reckon most of us could!  Give Harry £300 million to spend and he will keep QPR up!

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Congratulations to British number one ladies' tennis player Heather Watson won her second ever tournament in Hobart.  Judith Murray says that it will give her great confidence for the Australian Open...who am I to disagree with that expert?!

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Onto cricket and I was disappointed (although not surprised) to see England lose to Australia.  Skipper Morgan made a good ton but he had precious little support elsewhere.  He said that England are never going to have controversial Kevin Pietersen back in the England team.  It is understandable, although England could desperately do with a batsman of Pietersen's caliber at present.

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No prizes where James from our office will be tonight...I'm sure he will be glued to the American Football as the two games tonight between New England and Indianapolis, and Green Bay and Seattle will decide who goes to the Superbowl in a fortnight.  I must confess, I don't really understand all the rules and why it takes three hours to finish a game that only has one hour of gameplay!  Even so, the Americans certainly know how to market their sport and the Superbowl itself is always an incredible spectacle.

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Finally...Golfer: "This is the worst course I have ever played on"
Caddy: "This isn't the golf course, we left that about an hour ago!"